She's Quite A Girl

If you haven't read this post from last year in April, you may want to refresh your memory. Then you will know that I followed through on my word!

Meet Oreo. She is a 5 year old Siberian Husky. Apparently she was owner-surrendered at the over-night drop box. Yes, believe it or not, there is one at the Humane Society. The former owners left no information on the poor girl. So I have no idea what her name was before they left her there. The volunteers at the Humane Society named her Sabrina for the sake of living there. But I have changed it.
She has very good manners. I haven't seen her jump on me or anyone else, she's never on the furniture and amazingly enough, she never barks! She loves to lay on the floor next to me wherever I am. Her eyes have an ominous look to them. She almost has a piercing expression when she looks at you.
One sad part though; there is suspicion that she may have been hit or beaten in the past. She is timid around males and hangs her head alot as though she thinks she is in trouble for something. She has separation anxiety too. I'm quite sure it comes from being dumped at the Humane Society with many strangers coming and talking to her, then coming home with me and my leaving for work only 12 hours after getting her home. She had a rough first day in her kennel at home while I was working.
The cats were shocked to say the least. They have gotten used to her very quickly. They don't fluff up to the size of Texas anymore. It was very entertaining I have to admit. But it's amazing what 48 hours will heal.
My friends came over the second night I had her. They loved her and gave me so much to get started with her. Thanks go out to Dee, especially. You know why. Thank you too, Trisa and Lisa ....there are no friends better than all of you!
I can't wait for everyone else to meet her.....she has a very lovable personality.

Oreo on her first night at my house

A little more comfortable the next day

My sweet girl

Did You Race With Them?

Wow....I just finished watching the end to The Amazing Race. This is a race where 11 teams compete and race, literally, around the world. j The big prize at the end is $1 million dollars. Not too shabby! I had only really watched the first season but wasn't able to see all the episodes. So it was hard for me to get into the program. But last year and this year, I was completely hooked!
I had recorded it because I was working overtime. This morning I got up and the first thing I did was sit down with my cup of coffee in hand and watch the finale. It was very exciting...a nail-biter if you will! There were 3 couples left that had to race to the finish line. It was funny and at the same time, frustrating because you see what each team needs to do to win. I loved it!
I'm a little bit sad that it's over. I looked forward to it each Sunday night.

However, not to be disappointed that it's over. On February 7Th, the next Survivor premiers!
Check it out!

Southwest Airlines Christmas Party in Omaha

January 12TH, coincidentally my sister-in-law Susan's birthday, was the date of our company holiday party. We always hold it after the new year simply because the rental facilities around town have dropped the prices. It was a simply affair. And of course not all the employees are able to attend these functions. Planes are still flying....someone has to work them! And there are always those whom are either sick or already had other events planned before knowing the date of our party. We still had a good turn out.

We held it at a place that will cook for us but yet we get to bring in our own beverages, music, games, etc. Me being the treasurer of our station Culture Committee, I had been out and bought all the alcohol for the party. Early Saturday morning, I met a ramp supervisor at the party place where we carried all the supplies inside. Including but not limited to: about 20- 10 pound bags of ice, soda, water, napkins, cups and coolers-all of which he brought from work. The plan was to meet the president of our committee back there again that night at 6 PM. We still had to put all the beer and pop into the coolers and set up chairs at the tables. Plus we had to figure out how to do our drawing for all the prizes that we give away each year. This year we decided to play Dirty Santa. Once you draw a prize, the next person can either draw a new unknown gift or steal what the first person already drew. On and on it goes.

We had a menu of appetizers as opposed to a huge sit down meal. It seemed to go over well with everyone there as well. There were BBQ beanie weenies, Italian meatballs, hot wings, BBQ wings, rolls and butter, 3 kinds of cookies, mini cheese cakes from Sam's Club and a veggie tray with ranch dressing. It was all good.

During the week prior to the party, I went shopping with Lacey, the president for the prizes. And suffice it to say that by spending almost $3000 at Best Buy, we were able to pick up some pretty nice gifts! We definitely had fun shopping! Long story short, I went home after the party with an Insignia Sport 4GB MP3! It's just like the one in the picture. I've never had anything like it before. It should be fun learning how to use it! There were also hotel stays from other cities that SWA flies to that were given away. I think everyone was happy. We always have enough prizes for every employee.

Trying to get everyone organized for a group employee photo. Worse than a bunch of kids!

Mike (aka Wax), a ramp agent, his wife Loren and Kurt, a ramp supervisor

People

Midwest Airlines employees....they handle our cargo and are always invited.

I would have tried to list all the names on all the photos....too many faces to put all that info in. Some agents came to the party after they were off work or just didn't show up at all. Over all....a good turnout, considering our station only has roughly 55 employees.

After all the prizes had been drawn, the president Lacey and I were presented with $50 gift cards to Walmart/Sam's Club for the hard work on the party and for me, the length of time I've been the treasurer--8 or 9 years...something like that. A very nice gesture.

One more year gone....

Addendum to My Last Post..."See What I Did?"

After the painted room was cleaned up a bit and then re-arranged, I set to applying some of the stencils that I had based the color of the room. I will still be "window shopping" for other wall decor to hang on a couple of the other walls. And I left space along one wall in hopes of finding a futon suitable to my liking in both fashion and price.

Above the closet

Between the doorway and the closet...close up of wall makes it look more yellow.

It's more cheery in this room now. My computer is set up in here so I spend alot of my time looking at these walls.
On to the next room.....bedroom number 2.

See What I Did?

Since I moved in last summer, I knew that I was going to add some color to a few rooms. I started in the family room last September. Well, I've been on vacation for the last week. Even though I've been sick, one thing I managed to get done was paint one of the bedrooms. I've had some stencils that I was going to base my color on for quite some time. On one of my "feeling good" days, I spent the better part of 7 hours taping off the doors, baseboards and window, then applying two coats of lemon souffle yellow by Behr to the walls. I thought it was going to be a little more pale than it turned out, but I still really like it. Here (the moon, sun, stars and swirls) is a picture of what I have for this room. It brightened it up considerably and took away the boring hospital-white feel of the entire room. Now all I have left to do is to apply the stencils and re-hang pictures on the walls.

Just getting started
See how different it looks?
It looks brighter with the light on.

The cats love to sit in the window so I put a temporary cover on it to keep them from scratching the paint off. I want it to last for a little while!

Happy New Year!

This year I spent the night with all my friends. We gathered at Tammy and Steve's. The menu consisted of all "finger food." It was just easier than preparing an entire meal. I made Swedish Meatballs. I also had on hand and took with me 4 packages of Cubed Cheeses and a bag of chips. We also each brought our own beverage of choice for the night. I had a box of wine left in my refrigerator that was almost gone so that was my cocktail choice. The other foods that were there: BBQ beanie weenies, nachos, cheese and sausage slices for crackers, garlic bread, veggie tray with dips, crab cakes, pretzel sticks, home made salsa and chips, home made bean dip, and various crackers for dipping, home made truffles and cookies. I think that's all of it.

I was very tired having just worked 48 hours from Friday through Monday so I knew if I drank too much I would be sleeping very early. The other guests were commenting on how my eyes were barely open. I ended up staying at Tammy's. The wine and little bit of food that I ate made me tired quicker than I had hoped. I didn't feel well to start with and only got sicker as the night went. I got sick at Tammy's....I'll spare you the details!, and after going home the next morning I got sick again! Not to mention having, um, you know....diarrhea.

I was hungry but as soon as I would sit down to eat, I couldn't. It just didn't taste good and I thought I would vomit from the smell. I've been very congested and sick ever since! The best part of all this is that I'm on vacation at the same time. Nice vacation, don't you think? I have all these things I need to accomplish and haven't done very many of them.

I don't have any New Year's pictures as I knew that I wouldn't feel up to it. Sorry for that .... but suffice it to say, I still had a good time and I think we all did. We played some games and then rang in the New Year. Happy New Year to all of you!